Bombs and ropes

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.10 on 28 October 2026.

The game keeps the player's bombs and ropes as two numbers, drawn beside the hearts at the top of the screen, rather than as items he carries. A Bomb or a Rope only becomes an item when he uses one, and goes back into its count if he takes it out unused. Both counts carry over from level to level and start again with each game. The items' own pages say what a bomb and a rope do; this one is about how many the player has.

The HUD draws the bombs beside a bomb icon (a sticky bomb's, once the player has Paste) and the ropes beside a rope icon, each as the plain number ^[1]. Nothing else keeps them: a bomb or rope the player isn't holding exists only as the count.

Starting. A new game sets each to 4, or to 0 for the Tunnel Man ^[2]. The Tutorial starts with no bombs and 2 ropes ^[3], and a custom level from the level editor with the counts its author set, each from 0 to 99 ^[4].

The cap. At the start of each of the player's steps, a count above 99 is cut back to 99 ^[5]. Nothing is lost before that, so a bundle picked up near the cap still adds what it can.

Each use takes one from its count:

• The bomb key throws a lit bomb, if the count is above 0 ^[6] (Bomb).
• The rope key throws a rope up, or drops it down a ledge with down held ^[7] (Rope).
• The item key takes a bomb into the player's hands, unlit; pressed again, it puts the bomb back and takes out a rope, and a third time puts the rope back and brings back what he held. With no bombs it goes straight to a rope, and with neither, or with a heavy item or a shop's ware in his hands, it does nothing. A lit bomb can't be put away ^[8] (Bomb).

At an exit, an unlit bomb or a rope in the player's hands goes back into its count; a lit one is left behind ^[9].

The bundles add to the counts when they're taken: a free one when the player touches it, a shop's when he buys it or carries it out ^{[10] [11]}.

The bundles come from:

• Shops. The General Store sells Bomb Bags and Rope Piles ^[16], the Bomb Shop and the Weapon Shop Bomb Bags and Bomb Boxes ^[17], the Clothing Shop Rope Piles ^[18] and the Rare Shop Bomb Boxes ^[19]. A Bomb Box is also the Dice House's prize when the rolls for the others fail ^[20].
• Crates. Mostly a Rope Pile or a Bomb Bag, at even odds, once every other item's roll fails. Before those, a Bomb Box's is 1 in 40, once the fourteen rolls ahead of it, from the Jetpack's to the Machete's, fail. A Crate in the Tutorial always holds a Bomb Bag ^[21].
• The Yeti King, which leaves four items when it dies, each a Rope Pile one time in two once its 1 in 12 for Spike Shoes fails, and a Big Sapphire otherwise ^[22].
• Kali. Her first gift is a Bomb Box once the player has a Jetpack and every other piece of equipment she gives ^[23].

Apart from using them, a Monkey on the player's back takes them: when it doesn't throw away some of his money, it throws away a rope half the time, if he has one, or else a bomb, lit one time in ten ^[24]. The rope or bomb lands loose in the level, where he can pick it up again (Rope, Bomb).

The bundles' pages have their prices on each level.

In the clip, the player walks over a Bomb Bag, a Rope Pile and a Bomb Box, lying free on the floor, and the counts go from 4 bombs and 4 ropes to 7 and 4, 7 and 7, then 19 and 7. A bomb thrown ahead takes the bombs to 18, and a rope thrown up the ropes to 6 ^[31].

• A bomb arrow costs no bomb. The bomb key readies one on a drawn Bow while the player has a bomb, but takes none from the count: Free bomb arrows ^{[32] [33]}.
• A lit bomb the player didn't light goes back into the count. One lit by anything but the player, a Monkey or the Sun Room isn't marked as lit, so carried out of a level it's counted as an unlit bomb: Unarmed lit bombs ^{[32] [34]}.